I just wanted to say thank you so much for this website. I'm a self-taught knitter and it's great to be able to play your videos as many times as I need to get things right! It's also great to check and make sure that I'm doing things correctly (which I was thank goodness)!

I love that you do videos for both methods of holding yarn, many books I've looked at show only English methods while I'm a Continential knitter, so thanks for that!

I've just started up a knit blog for anyone interested. I love reading blogs so thought I'd do one of my own! It's at knit-wit.blog-city.com.

I checked out your new blog. Fun to read about your early knitting challenges! My biggest flop was a sock that I knit in such a tight guage that it looked like it had been felted! It would have made a decent slipper, actually, had I had the patience to make a second one! LOL

You live in Dublin! I have a lot of family, on Sheldon's side, in Ireland, mostly in Drogheda. We visited with them in 2002. I did experience a bit of Dublin, rather by accident....

We had just come back from England, and a bus from the ferry landed us in Dublin. But it was too late for the train to Drogheda, so the plan was to stay overnight in Dublin. There was some big event that weekend (sports related I think), and all of the hotels were BOOKED! It was after 11pm, and we were wandering the streets, going from one hotel to the next, and they all refused us! We couldn't reach any of our family by phone, and were left wandering the streets in a panic, for HOURS. We had completely resigned ourselves to sleeping in a public park, which we were looking for, when we saw a light on (this is after 1am) in an out-of-the-way Bed and Breakfast. Apparently, we had hit upon probably the ONLY bachelor-pad B&B on the planet. It appeared that the owners of the B&B were away, and that their sons were running it. Which meant that they were up after 1am! Woohoo! They took us in, and we couldn't have been happier. Who cares if the decor was getting sloppy? Who cares if there was a spot of blood on the toilet paper? Who cares if the orange juice at breakfast was sour? It was better than sleeping under a bush! The only real risk we took was that the alarm clock was set way off, and we nearly missed out train to Drogheda! But it all worked out. And we got to say we had an adventure in Dublin!

Next time I'm stuck without a hotel in Dublin, I'll look you up!!

Amy

__________________~Amy
KnittingHelp Queen Bee

‎"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."— Martha Graham

Wow, sounds like you had one helluva time here in Dublin! I do have a spare room with a futon next time you're stuck here. Hope you don't think Dublin is all that bad after that!

I live in the city centre but love all the outskirt places like Malahide, Howth and Bray. I have never been to Drogheda though!

Anyway, once I update my blog I plan to have a section on my disasters, I think it's important we share the bad with the good! Although its hard to imagine you having disasters as you seem to be such an expert knitter.

Oh, by the way, my avatar is a fanart image of a character called Jane from a cartoon called Daria. I love it!

I'll have to post that on my knitblog sometime. I was quite funny now that I can look back and laugh about it! Was so NOT funny the time however!

Don't have any pics unfortunately, it happened before I discovered the knitting community on the internet.

Basically, I was drinking (red) wine while watching tv while knitting. Not only did I mess up the pattern as my attention was diverted by the movie (Vin Diesel = YUM!), and about half a bottle of wine, (the pattern got completely out of whack as I didn't bother counting stiches) but as I knitted I began to feel the yarn was...well...wet. What happened was the yarn, which was in a basket which was placed beside my wine glass, had some amount slack in it (due to my lack of due care and diligence I'm sure). It ended up getting dunked in the wine. I ended up knitting wine soaked yarn into my garment (a baby sleeper in pale yellow) for a few stiches before my brain caught up with me. Luckily I had only just started the back and had only used half a skein of yarn.

Don't worry. I love having a good story to tell: Dublin was one of the highlights of my trip! ...I do hope to see it for real, one day, though. That is: in daylight, with actual places to visit, other than random back streets! LOL I have no idea if/when I'll ever return, but if I do, I'll let you know! That would be really cool, to hang out with another knitter in my travels!

I've definitely had my share of disasters. Like my first sweater design. I made it for my nephew, and it was pretty cute, but he could BARELY sqeeze into it! No room for even a shirt under it, it was so tight on his arms, and it came up way above his navel! LOL Let's see, I think I can dig up a pic for you all....

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__________________~Amy
KnittingHelp Queen Bee

‎"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."— Martha Graham

Haha those are great stories! I love them. Having only knitted one item so far, a hat, I don't have any good stories. Thanks to Amy, I can't even complain about learning how to knit because her videos made it way too easy

You guys are cracking me up I pulled a LOL -- sitting by myself in my office when I saw the teeny tiny sweater!! It is sooo cute, though! Now the red wine story is something I can see myself doing!

My knitting crack-up this week was a fun fur scarf I knit over the weekend. As I'm knitting it, my husband is exclaiming that it is the ugliest scarf he has ever seen (I guess I shouldn't wear it to his company after-holiday party ;-) ) So, when it is finished the next day, I decide to show it off to him by walking downstairs wearing a skirt, high heels and *only* the scarf for a top. I say "What do you think of my scarf *now* -- wink, wink" He simply says "it looks like you have a squirrel around your neck" UGH! I put on a top, wear it to work, take it off during the day and leave in piled on my desk where my boss walks in a does a startled jump back because she (seriously) thought I had an animal on my desk!!! I may have to give up fun fur!!!